


I Didn't Come Back Alone

by nerdgamestrong



Series: I Didn't Come Back Alone [1]
Category: Eu não quero voltar sozinho | I Don't Want to Go Back Alone (2010), Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho | The Way He Looks (2014)
Genre: Blind Character, Domestic Fluff, English, Family, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Marriage, Married Life, Same-Sex Marriage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:56:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3923743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdgamestrong/pseuds/nerdgamestrong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo and Gabriel adjust to being married after high school and college and encounter some big life changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this is my first fanfiction so if you have any suggestions, message me or follow me on tumblr at www.nerdgamestrong.tumblr.com The climax of the story is coming soon!

Leonardo opened his eyes to the same thing he had his whole life. He opened them to darkness. He felt a smooth coldness on his cheek. He placed his hand out and felt the curly hair that he felt every Saturday. It was his dog Lucas. Lucas was the mutt that followed him home one day a few months after he left college and moved into his first apartment, and Leo had decided to keep him after the dark mass of fur rubbed against his leg on his walk home. The dog continued to lick Leo as he rolled over and faced the remainder of the empty bed. Leo placed his hand out and rubbed the large dogs head to signify to the animals that he was getting up soon and that he would be there in a second to play with the dog.

The dog stepped towards the door to go to the kitchen where he knew Leo would be headed making scratching noises on the hardwood as he did so. Leo got up momentarily, stretching slightly first then sitting there blankly contemplating his upcoming day while sitting in his underwear on the side of the bed. He soon got up, but on a t-shirt and some shorts made of a stretchy, light fabric and headed downstairs to the kitchen.  
Downstairs as he turned the corner that allowed the staircase to serve as a separator to the kitchen and the living room, he heard the dog barking.

"Good boy! Are you ready to start the day with your dads?" Said a voice coming from the kitchen, “You’re really ready to go aren't you."

That voice belonged to Leo's high school crush, college sweetheart, and as of a year ago, husband, Gabriel. They had been together ever since that day in Leo's room where they both mustered up the strength to kiss each other, and were still together two graduations, one major breakup, two moves, and one dog later.

Leo still loved every time he heard Gabriel's voice or smelled his scent on the laundry (which after so much time together had become a pile of communal clothes that Leo folded and placed in their shared dressers) or on his pillow that also stole during the night and would always be apologetic about the morning after.

Leonardo felt his way towards the counter where he heard his husband's voice and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which later turned into a more passionate open kiss. This was how their Saturdays always started. Leo sat down in the chair on the side of the kitchen opposite the cabinets and smiled.

Their dog made his way over to him, and started to try to nuzzle his way in between his legs. Then he proceeded to try to jump up on his owner and lick him yet again. He had curly hair that shed throughout the house, but they didn't mind the hair that got on their clothes, they loved Lucas, he was the object of their affections, their parents' affection, and the affection of his aunt Giovanna.

"Hey Leoncinho, how did you sleep?" Gabriel asked as he stood over the stove.

"I slept well, but you know I hate that name."

"Sorry. I couldn't resist, you look so cute this morning with your wild hair."

Leo did that side smile he did when he was half embarrassed half happy. He was still actively involved with Lucas and the silent hand that wrapped around his chin and grasped his hair went almost unnoticed. He shrunk back a little from the intimate contact, but then he felt Gabriel's lips meet his and leaned back into the interaction.

Gabriel pulled back and said, "We need to go ahead and eat if we want to have time to go out for a walk and make it to lunch with your mother."

Soon they finish eating; they got dressed, and headed out the door together. And once again, they were facing the day and the darkness, like they had every day since high school…together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo and Gabriel go for a nice walk to the park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I want to thank my friend Emma (doughnutsfordoughnuts.tumblr.com) for helping look over these because my grammar is terrible and I never would have published this without her. The story will get more serious with Leo and Gabriel's lunch date with Laura, but for right now its more domestic fluffiness. Feel free to comment with any suggestions or questions!

Hand in hand, they walked towards Villa-Lobos Park, matching each other’s steps as Lucas trailed behind. They crossed the street holding onto each other, they made this walk every Saturday while leading their mammoth of a dog down the traffic packed avenues and streets of Sao Paulo. It felt nice outside, the sun was shining, producing a somewhat humid heat that was combated with a slightly cool breeze blowing behind them. They stopped at an intersection and waited for clearance to cross.

“What time are we meeting my mother?”, Leo asked leaning down to rub their dog’s dark fur.

Gabriel and Leo’s mother, Laura, had grown close in the years following the couple’s entrance to college and the introduction of Gabriel to Leo’s father and mother. In the beginning, Laura had feelings of mistrust towards her son’s boyfriend. She had little faith in Gabriel’s good intent with her son, she worried if she could allow Gabriel to take her place as Leo’s caretaker, the role she had always occupied. But as Leo became more serious with Gabriel and as she realized that Leo had grown into an adult capable enough to not only take adequate care of himself, but to succeed in the world, she learned not only to tolerate Gabriel, but she soon found herself enjoying her company. Plus, she still liked to get little updates from Gabriel on how her son was doing, so that she could still have some insight the life of her only son.

“She told me she wanted to meet at three o’clock over the phone.” Gabriel said staring at the light on the opposite side of the intersection, “Why? Do we need to do something else before we go meet her?”

Leo smiled at Gabriel’s casual use of the word “we”. He smiled, not losing concentration from Lucas. “No. I’m free all day. I’ve been looking forward to this lunch since you and her scheduled it.”

They made their way down the street to the park with dog area fenced in with black wire fencing. Gabriel let his fingers go the length of the wire as they walked passed the barrier as they made their way towards the wooden bench in a shady clearing near a walking trail. They sat down and promptly let Lucas roam freely inside the fenced section. Gabriel wrapped him arm around Leo and squeezed as he watched their dog roam freely, looking like a giant compared to the small dogs that belonged to the apartment dwellers and grandmothers.

Leo placed his head part way onto Gabriel’s chest and inhaled just the slightest. Gabriel smelled different, different from when they first kissed, different from when he first held his hand, and different from the night in high school where Leo had gotten an intimate smell of Gabriel when he left his sweatshirt at Leo’s house. Gabriel now smelled like a mix of his old self and a mix of Leonardo. Leo guessed the same could be said for himself, but somehow Gabriel was more fragrant, maybe it was his basal aroma or maybe it was one of the products that he used in the mornings to get ready for work, but Leo didn’t care, he was just happy to be next to Gabriel, to be held by him, to smell him, to be the one that he had chosen to spend the rest of his life with.

Gabriel moved his hand over to Leo’s and interlocked their fingers. Gabriel could feel his own wedding band being pushed into his left hand by the force that Leo was exerting back on the hands that covered his own. Gabriel didn’t look down, but continued to look towards Lucas as he played with the other dogs. He smiled at the little tickle he felt as Leo took another inhalation of his scent. Gabriel had never let Leo know that he knew that Leo smelled him, because he thought that this was a way that Leo connected to Gabriel, and Gabriel found that possibility both sweet and erotic.

Gabriel continued to look forward and smile as he opened his mouth and said, “Do you think this is like a party to the dogs? They get to run around wild and socialize. It’s like a weird puppy social mixer.”

Leonardo smiled, “I can’t believe I married such a silly man.”

Gabriel leaned into the forehead that his husband had lay on his chest and kissed him right above his eyes as he laughed casually at Leo’s joke. Time had passed by quickly and he knew that soon they would have to return home in order to get ready for lunch with his mother, but he didn’t want to break that moment, which seemed like it had only lasted seconds, but in reality had been continuing for almost half an hour.

“We need to get up soon and head back home to get ready to meet your mother. Traffic will be terrible around lunch.”

Leo broke hands away from Gabriel’s and sat upright as he called for their dog that was currently rolling around in what Gabriel hoped was dirt. They collected Lucas and placed him back on the leather leash. It had been a nice and peaceful Saturday morning, years ago when they were in college; both of them would have slept in together with twin hangovers from the night before. After graduation, they came to the consensus along with Giovanna that all of them had been drinking too much and they decided to limit their alcohol intake.

They were no longer high school students who could go out drinking constantly. In a few years, they would reach their thirties. Their age had resulted in a loss of ability to bounce back as quickly as they once had. 

Gabriel squeezed Leonardo’s upper thigh, causing Leo to jump from the tickling sensation. “Let’s go”, Leo said as he reached out his hand for Gabriel’s. He felt around for Gabriel’s arm until he linked their hands together and smiled. Leo leaned in to kiss Gabriel on the cheek put misplaced the location of Gabriel’s cheek in his head and he ended up giving Gabriel a kiss on the nose. Gabriel laughed at his husband who was being uncharacteristically cheeky before they went to their lunch date with his mother.

They did this same routine on the idle days that composed their weekends. It wasn’t the first time they had followed this scheduling in their free time and it wouldn’t be their last. All the other Saturdays had blended into one memory that somehow found a way to be both mundane and memorable, both boring and enthralling, but this Saturday would be one they would remember, because Leo and Gabriel both knew that this day in particular would stand out in the memories of past lazy Saturdays, they knew that today was the day they were going to bring change into their life.

So as they left for the lunch, with their big news on their mind, they once again walked hand in hand, both knowing in their hearts and in their minds that they could rely on each other for all the support and love that they needed. It had been a hard time getting to this point in their life, but they knew that nothing took away from the feeling of having someone to walk with, so that neither of them would have to return alone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel and Leo get ready for and go to a lunch with Leo's mother Laura to deliver some big news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long for me to publish this. I've been really busy and I've been traveling lately. I want to thank my aforementioned friend Emma for proofreading this and giving me constructive criticism. If you have any questions feel free to ask or leave a comment. I hope you like it. <3<3<3

It was 1 o'clock by the time Gabriel and Leo had rounded the corner leading to their house, Lucas following behind them. The cool breeze from before was beginning to grow as it began to overpower the warmth from earlier that day. The street was beginning to get crowed with a few of the cities millions of cars that would soon find themselves stuck in lunch time traffic jams. It was this reason that prompted Gabriel to schedule a late lunch for himself, his husband, and his mother-in-law, so that they would be able to bypass any traffic on the way to the restaurant.

They came to the brown, wooden gate of the wall right as Gabriel pressed the button that caused the gate to swing open towards the house. The gate opened into what could barely be called a front yard since all it was only a few feet of space until the front door of the house were right in front of anyone who entered the gate. The grass was brown in some spots since Leo had protested the waste of any water just to preserve the color of a lawn he couldn’t see. The only thing that didn’t look parched in the yard was the medium sized almond tree that stood before the door.

The two men moved toward their front door as the large gate closed automatically behind them. They entered the foyer with its dark wooden floors that extended out to the rest of the relatively small house. Lucas ran past Leo and Gabriel as he made his way toward the kitchen to settle on his bed opposite from the closet that housed the washer and dryer.  
“Let’s go ahead and get dressed. If we don’t go ahead and go, my mom is going to start nagging us to hurry up. We probably need to take showers too.” Leo said as he made his way up the stairs, “You smell a little like dog.”

Gabriel laughed and followed his husband up the narrow stairs that led directly into their bedroom and lay at the top of the bed and turned on the television. CNN was on covering some story about corruption over resources in the southern United States. As time had gone on and he had grown into an adult, Gabriel frequently watched the news more and more, making him a bit more somber in his worldwide outlook and more worldly and deep as far as conversation went.

In the neighboring room, Leo had started the shower and closed the door behind him. The water was still warming up, but it was still warmer than the light breeze he and his husband had encountered outside. Leo got into the shower and backed up into a corner. The tiles were cold compared to the water which had begun to heat up.   
After rinsing off and showering, Leo stepped out of the shower and dried off. He put on his underwear and made his way out the bathroom and to the bed. Gabriel subsequently got up from the bed and went into the bathroom and took a shower. After getting out of the shower and putting on some underwear and shaving his face, since Laura had made a point at one point during one of their phone conversations that she thought that stubble was pedestrian and he hadn’t made shaving a priority earlier that morning, Gabriel opened the door and lay down next to his husband, with them both using the cane headboard and some pillows to prop up and face the television.   
Gabriel looked at his husband. He looked his husband up and down, from the dopey look that was on his face that he always made when he was thinking about something, presumably the news in this instance, to the small patch of hair that went from his belly button further down into parts of Leo that only Gabriel had gotten accustomed to over the years of their relationship.

“Stop staring at me like that.” Leo said as he smiled.

“And what makes you think that I was looking at you?” Gabriel said jokingly, half of him was surprised he got caught and half of him was still concentrating on his previous thoughts.

“After so many years being with you, and then living with you, I can predict your every move.”

“Oh, really?” Gabriel asked as he leaned in and kissed his husband on his lips

“Yeah, that and I felt you shift towards me in the bed silly.”

Gabriel kissed his husband mockingly again. Then Leo wrapped his hands around his husbands face and leaned in and kissed Gabriel on his lips.

“You know something?” Leo asked as Gabriel leaned on top of him, “You’ve always been silly. Even now, you’re still silly. Gabriel, you’ll be silly for forever and that’s why I love you.”

Leo leaned back in and kissed Gabriel again. Gabriel kissed back and gradually got fully on top of Leonardo. Gabriel felt something pressing on the back of his thigh, but he was preoccupied with the hand that had found its way into the back of his underwear. They were still kissing deeply, neither of them wanting to pull away from the other, but time wasn’t on their side.

“We’ll finish this at a later date Leoncinho, we need to leave now to meet your mother or she’ll start to call us and worry.”

Gabriel felt kind of bad for leading on Leo. They hadn’t really done anything intimate other than kissing for the past week and now they had to leave before they could really do anything. Gabriel wondered if this could be why Leo had been acting so cheeky lately, but he didn’t have time to dwell on the thought. They needed to get dressed and to head out, after all the lunch with Laura was the only reason that they had even came back from the park.

Both the boys got up and began to get dressed. As they began to head down the stairs, Gabriel kissed Leo again on the cheek. By the time they got to the doorway, Lucas was waiting on them, anticipating another walk. Lucas tried to make a dash as the boys went out of the door. Gabriel closed the door before Lucas had time to escape to assure that Lucas didn’t have an opportunity to leave the house and get lost in the neighborhood.

Leonardo got into the passenger side of their car as Gabriel made his way around to the driver’s side. They started to pull off the curb and they soon reached the avenue as they tried to make their three o’clock lunch date.

They made to the restaurant at 3:15, luckily Laura was also a little late, so they beat her there by 5 minutes and they had already had time to get a table and sit down by the time she sat down next to Leo and across from Gabriel.

“How are my two boys doing?” she asked as she smiled at Gabriel.

“Fine” they both answered

“How are things with you mom?” Gabriel asked politely, addressing Laura as she had insisted he do after he and Leo’s wedding.

“I’m good.” Laura said while pointing at her menu to order her food, “You know it’s just me and Carlos in the house now. We try to keep ourselves busy, but it’s nice to get out for a little while and talk to someone a little younger.”

The lunch dragged on until five. The group made their way through light conversation, small talk, and a sizeable meal. As the meal drew to an end, the boys knew that they had to make their news know, since it was the main reason that Gabriel had called Laura to lunch. Gabriel lightly nudged Leo’s leg under the table to signal that now was the time that they needed to take action.

“So mom, we brought you here because we wanted to talk to you about sometime. No one else knows about what we are about to tell you besides Giovanna and Dad, but we figure we have to tell people eventually.” Leo said, voice shaking from the anxiousness of breaking the big news to his mother, “We can’t just wait until it happens.”

“We feel that what we are about to tell you is something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time. We’ve already filed papers and it is happening sooner rather than later.” Gabriel said while looking at Laura with a straight face to hide his nervousness. “We both agreed that we want some positive change in our lives and we feel like this is the best way to bring it.”

Laura’s face had sunken in. She had jumped to conclusions. “Are you telling me that you two are getting a divorce soon? How was I the last one to know about this?” She kept talking without giving anyone a chance to answer. “Why did you wait until now to tell me that you two are having problems?”

“You’ve misunderstood us completely and the only reason anyone else knows about this is because they found out by accident.” Leo said correcting the assumptions of his mother.

“We can show you our plans better than we can tell you. It’ll make more sense that way.” Gabriel added “We should’ve done that from the beginning.”

Gabriel took out and opened his wallet took out a little glossy sheet of paper and slid it towards his mother-in-law. She looked at the little picture with a little more clarity than she had before.

Gabriel smiled at Laura, “This is what we brought you here for. Do you understand what we’re trying to tell you?”

Laura looked up from the small picture and smiled contently and eagerly nodded in agreement of her son and his husband’s decision.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo, Gabriel, and Laura talk about some big news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Chapter 4! I hope you like it. If you have any questions or concerns or comments you can leave a comment on the work or leave me an ask on tumblr (nerdgamestrong.tumblr.com). Thanks!!!

Laura looked closely at the picture that her son in law had given to her from across the table. On the picture there was small child, who couldn’t be any older than two or three looking up bashfully back at Laura. Laura reached into the seat next to hers and grabbed her son’s hand and smiled without looking up, Leo smiled as his mother squeezed his hand in happiness and support. She studied the picture further with her eyes not coming off of the picture.

The little girl seemed to return the stare that her only living grandmother was giving her through the picture with her dark brown almond eyes, which rested underneath their epicanthic fold that gave a reflected part of the girl’s heritage. She had sepia skin with a cool pink undertone radiating from her cheeks that gave her a tone similar to an organic form of copper. Her thick eyebrows covered her face in the same dark brown color as the thick, curly hair on her head.

“What her name?” Laura said finally looking up from the picture until her eyes met Gabriel’s.

“Marina. Her name is Marina. She just turned three.” He responded, smiling as he described his daughter.

“That’s a pretty name. She’s a pretty girl.” Laura beamed at the thought of her only grandchild. “How did all of this come about boys? And why was I the last to find out?”

Leo laughed at his mother and her complaint about being left out of the loop. “It was supposed to be a secret, but it got out as time went on. We actually didn’t want to tell anyone that we were planning on adopting until we were sure that we would get a child. Now that we’re sure, you just happen to be the only person who didn’t find out.” Leo went on to explain. “Dad found out one day when he was installing those light pendants we bought for the kitchen, I guess he saw some papers on the kitchen table lying out and he put two and two together and asked us about it. Giovanna found out because she slept over one night and guessed after she saw the changes we we’re making to the second bedroom.”

Gabriel started to talk, “In fact, the only person who doesn’t know is my brother who lives in America now, because obviously we couldn’t make it that far to tell him, so we’ll have to have a phone conversation with him at some point.”

“Well how did all of this come together?” Laura said while looking back at the picture. “When did all of this start?”

Gabriel answered her. “Well, we knew that we wanted to have children one day, and it just seemed like the right time. We’re getting older, so we looked into adopting and here we are seven months later. Then somewhere in the process, we were matched with her, she lived in Paraisópolis until a favela fire when she was apparently displaced and taken in by the state, and soon we’ll be the ones taking her in.”

“We already have a room set up for her.” Leo chimed in.

Laura was having a hard time picturing her son, who she had protected for all of his childhood into adolescence, protecting a child of his own. How could her own son, who she had seen grow from the baby she held when he was first born, into a parent himself?

The thought brought her back to the time, years ago, when Leo was a baby. He was going through a phase where he refused to wear any clothing. Not thinking much of it, she left him alone on the floor to get the phone. By the time she came back, he had managed to take off his diaper, prop himself up on the side of the couch, and saturate a patch of fabric from the couch in urine. She remembered laughing at her baby, her only son, for his behavior.

During the time she was sitting at that table, slowly absorbing the gravity of the news, she went back to all the other small moments of parenthood that her and Carlos had experienced over the past two, almost three decades. She remembered not being able to calm Leo when he was teething, she remembered how his little cheeks got red from the sun when he would play in the backyard for too long, she remembered when she took him to school for the first time. She was somewhat in shock at the fact that the little person, who her husband and her mutually decided to create, had grown into an adult, fully capable of taking care of a little person of his own.

While Laura was lost in thought, still holding the picture, Gabriel reached his foot back across the table until it found his husbands leg. He wrapped his feet around his husband’s ankle. Leo cheeks grew red, embarrassed that his husband was attempting playing footsie with him under the table, with his mother less than a foot away from him.

Gabriel saw his husband’s response and released the foot with a smirk, knowing that his husband was embarrassed just like he used to be when they were teenagers doing the same thing under Laura and Leo’s dinner table.

The dinner dragged on until 6:40ish. They talked about Marina, how soon she would be living with her new parents and their prospects for the Marina’s future. Laura dominated the conversation as she tended to without intending to. The boys were given an estimate that it could be anywhere between two weeks and two months before their adoption was finalized in the courts. After a little over three hours, the boys and Laura began to get ready to part ways. It was kind of awkward leaving the late lunch which over time had overtime become an early dinner, because while the boys had finally told everyone who they felt needed to be told about their daughter, meaning that now there was nothing left to bringing her home but signing some papers, Laura had just gotten what she considered the biggest news to happen to her since she herself learned that she was expecting her Leo, but they parted anyway, knowing that the awkward energy left between them from the exposure of the news would only lose any awkward connotations and intensify when they met Marina, got to know her, and raised her to be a part of their family.

Laura was the first to leave the table, she leaned over and kissed Leo on his forehead and gave him a deep hug, and then she walked over to Gabriel and did the same thing. Gabriel and Leo walked with her to her car, waiting for her to get in and drive off before,  
Gabriel saw his husband’s response and released the foot with a smirk, knowing that his husband was embarrassed just like he used to be when they were teenagers doing the same thing under Laura and Leo’s dinner table.

The dinner dragged on until 6:40ish. They talked about Marina, how soon she would be living with her new parents and their prospects for the Marina’s future. Laura dominated the conversation as she tended to without intending to. The boys were given an estimate that it could be anywhere between two weeks and two months before their adoption was finalized in the courts. After a little over three hours, the boys and Laura began to get ready to part ways. It was kind of awkward leaving the late lunch which over time had overtime become an early dinner, because while the boys had finally told everyone who they felt needed to be told about their daughter, meaning that now there was nothing left to bringing her home but signing some papers, Laura had just gotten what she considered the biggest news to happen to her since she herself learned that she was expecting her Leo, but they parted anyway, knowing that the awkward energy left between them from the exposure of the news would only lose any awkward connotations and intensify when they met Marina, got to know her, and raised her to be a part of their family.

Laura was the first to leave the table, she leaned over and kissed Leo on his forehead and gave him a deep hug, and then she walked over to Gabriel and did the same thing. Gabriel and Leo waited with her until the valet got her car, waiting for her to get in and drive off before they retrieved their own car from the valet.

When the car came back, they got in and got back on the avenue to go home. Gabriel grabbed Leo's hand and placed it on the center console of the car, he squeezed his husbands hand, feeling the platinum band on his left hand. Gabriel looked his mirror, seeing the backseat and imagining his daughter looking back at him in the mirror, he smiled and squeezed his husbands hand again as they drove off to their home together once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's still more chapters to come!!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel and Leo enjoy some intimate time together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Emma and Destiny for looking over this for me. There will be more to come!

Gabriel pulled into the parking spot in front of the house and turned off the car. He was still holding Leo’s hands as he took the keys out of the ignition. They both stepped out of the car, through the gate, and into their house. Gabriel flipped on a light and stood in the entry way of the house, Leo soon followed behind. Lucas must have been asleep in his bed in the kitchen, because he didn’t run to meet the boys at the door as he normally did when he was awake. Gabriel grabbed Leo around his neck and pulled him closer. Since high school, Gabriel and Leo had both grown in height, with Gabriel growing to be about three inches taller than Leonardo. Gabriel pulled Leo into his chest and embraced him for a few seconds before letting him go.

They both made their way to the living room and sat on the couch together. Gabriel turned on the television and flipped through channels before deciding to aimlessly watch the news, while Leo grabbed a well-worn braille copy of Antigone and spread across the couch traversing Gabriel’s lap. Gabriel reached down and lay his hands on his husband’s back and rubbed his hands across it, sometimes his hands would make their way up to Leo's neck where would squeeze slightly, sometimes his hands would make their way lower than his back where they would do the same squeezing ritual.

They set there until it was around ten at night and Leo was having a hard time keeping his head from falling limp onto Gabriel's lap.

"I need to get ready for bed." Leo exclaimed. "I'm so tired."

"Awwww, is my little man getting sleepy?" Gabriel joked as he moved back to break he and Leo's pose on the couch.

When Gabriel let Leo go, Leo walked up the stairs and made his way to their bedroom. He took off his shoes first, then his shirt, then his pants, and so on until he was under laying under the sheets in his underwear. He lay on the bed spreading out in the bed until he finally got up the motivation to get up and walk his way to the bathroom. Leo peed, brushed his teeth, and made his way back to bed, where he fell asleep in a starfish position taking up both sides of the bed.

Meanwhile, the whole time downstairs as Leo lay across his husband's lap, as Gabriel blatantly felt up his husband on the couch, Gabriel's mind had shifted from the news to something far more intimate. While lying on the couch, Leo had felt his husband begin to press against his stomach but due to his fatigue from the day he practically ignore the feeling except for the occasional "repositioning" he did every few minutes.

Gabriel had worked himself up downstairs after Leo had left. What had begun as a gentle kneading had slowly turned into a brazen stroking as he thought about his husband who had just been lying on him, rubbing against him, making him anxiously wait for a release from their encounter earlier that day.

Gabriel decided to surprise his husband, who he assumed would still be awake in their bed since it had only been about twenty minutes since Leo had walked upstairs. Gabriel decided to take his husband a little by surprise. He stood up in front of the couch, looking over at Lucas and seeing that the dog was sound asleep again on the far side of the room. He took off his shirt first, and then he took off his socks, followed by his pants and undergarments and folded them all and placed them on the arm of the couch.

He crept up the stairs in the dark as he made his way to the bed and saw the outline of his husband, passed out from exhaustion and spread across the bed. He grabbed his husbands shoulder and shook it took wake Leo up.

“Whaaaaat?” Leo moaned in exhaustion and slight annoyance, “What do you want?”

Gabriel took his hand from Leo’s shoulder and slid it down past the waistband of his underwear.

“I’m tired. I just want to sleep.” Leo said with his eyes still closed and a blank expression of tiredness on his face. “Maybe later Gabriel.”

Gabriel slid his hand away from his husband’s body and realized that Leo was tired, and in all honesty so was he. Gabriel stood up and tried his best to yank some sheets from under his husband who was still spread out on top of the bed, deep asleep. Gabriel crawled under the sheets and fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit his pillow.

By the time morning had come, Leo had woken up and was sitting in bed, drowsy and dazed. He sat still next to his husband for twenty minutes, before Gabriel, being the restless sleeper he is, moved around underneath the sheets and Leo felt again what he had felt the night before on the couch, stabbing him in the side of his thigh.

Leo felt the lump hidden by the sheets and couldn’t help but think how relentless husband’s libido was at this point after being worked up and told to wait not once but twice in less than twenty-four hours. Now that Leo wasn’t exhausted, he realized that he too wanted some type of conclusion from the day before.

Leo leaned back and grabbed the edges of the sheet and put them over his body. Leo felt the warmth of Gabriel’s skin, but what surprised Leo was that the warmth continued down without any interruption from any type of clothing.

“Wow, Gabriel must have gotten himself worked up even more than I thought yesterday.” Leo thought has he made the discovery he had forgotten last night “I wonder if he ‘took care’ of himself.”

Leo slid his hand over to the spot where the lump and felt his husband in his hand. He moved his hand up and down, up and down, until Gabriel moved on his back signifying that he had woken up at some point in the stroking and giving Leo greater access to the area he was preoccupied with.

Leo changed up his tactic and soon he had his head bent over Gabriel with one hand feeling over and his husband’s chest and another that was being utilized to make sure that even if all of Gabriel wouldn’t fit into Leo’s mouth, it would still be paid ample attention to through a mild caressing. 

During all of this, Gabriel had begun, not unlike last night, to feel his husbands smooth back, and he eventually made his way past his husband’s waistband as he passionately began to squeeze his husband’s hips with both hands. Soon his fingers were rubbing the outside of his husband, going in a slow circular motion and finally entering his husband.

“If you want to get into that, give me a quick second to get a little more prepared.” Leo exclaimed moving forward off his husband to speak.

Gabriel was taken aback by hearing his husband speak, since before this no words had been exchanged by the pair.

“No more waiting.” Gabriel breathed. “I’ve been waiting for so long.”

“Good things come to those who wait.” Leo rebutted still holding his husband in his hand

Leo got off the bed and headed to the bathroom. Gabriel heard the water running and the cabinets opening in the bedroom as he stared up at the ceiling. Ten minutes later, Leo returned through the bathroom door carrying a bottle with one of the little red labels that Gabriel put on all the small things like spices and toiletries to avoid any mix ups on Leo’s part.

Leo placed the bottle on the table next to the bed and he climbed back on the bed and over Gabriel’s face. He leaned in and kissed Gabriel. Gabriel could still taste himself on Leo’s mouth. Leo moved completely on top of Gabriel placing each of his legs on opposite sides of Gabriel. Leo kissed Gabriel again as he grinded back onto a part of his husband that was still wet with his saliva.

They kissed for a few more seconds before Gabriel started to grind back in rhythm with Leo, hitting him in the back with his anatomy, smearing a small amount of moisture onto his back. Leo decided it was time to give his husband what he had been too tired to give him earlier that weekend. He leaned forward on his knees, grabbed the bottle on the nightstand, and applied the contents. He grabbed his husband, positioned himself accordingly, and slowly felt his husband enter into a place that only he had ever gone.

Leo started moving up and down in a slow pattern, occasionally stopping to do a hip grinding maneuver until he felt Gabriel tense up and then he would stop for a while then start again. Gabriel kept being brought to the same point of no release until finally he decided to change up the pace of the slow morning. Gabriel sat up and motioned Leo to roll off of him and onto the other side of the bed. Gabriel rolled on top of Leo who was spread out. Gabriel leaned in and kissed his husband again before pulling up Leo’s legs and reentering his husband.

Now Gabriel, after waiting for days and being worked nearly to a point of no return, he decided to somewhat return the favor to Leo for a little while. He started off slow, hitting spots that made Leo grab into his back and let out little mews every few seconds. They went slow for the next few minutes with Leo getting into the rhythm by moving his body back to meet Gabriel.

It was around 8 o’clock by the time Gabriel decided that they both needed some type of release after teasing each other for so long. He gradually increased his pace until he was at a steady fast rate of movement, with Leo’s mews turning into more vocal cries. They were both reaching a final point of excitement.

“I’m going to finish if you don’t slow down.” Leo said as he squeezed his husband’s side.

“Me too Leoncinho.” Gabriel said teasing his husband in a moment of intimacy.

“I don’t like that name….” Leo was interrupted before he got a chance to say anything else by a rapping on the front door followed by the sound of the doorbell.  
“What the hell? It’s barely 8:15. Who could it be?” Gabriel said before realizing that only one person would knock that early on a Sunday morning and they had a key. “Giovana couldn’t come at a worse time.”

They both heard the door open while Gabriel still kept his rhythm. Gabriel was determined to finish before they were interrupted by their old friend. He sped up to a point that the sound of he and Leo’s bodies made a sound when they came together in intersection. The sound reverberated through the room and possibly through the entire house, but both of the men had their mine focused on things other than the possibility of their bodily sounds giving them away.

It was Leo, who finished first, creating a mess of his hair, the bed sheets, and a small portion of the caned headboard. Leo let out a satisfied gasp, releasing all the air in his lungs. Gabriel soon after feeling his husband tense up around him, finished inside his husband. His breathing grew louder. His breathing went from just being heavy, to bordering on a loud low heaving as he finished up the escapades of the morning.

Gabriel leaned in again and kissed his husband, before withdrawing from Leo’s body. He kissed Leo one more time on the neck as he slid down to get off the bed.

“Come on. Let’s get dressed and cleaned up. Giovana is downstairs.” Gabriel said while grabbing Leo’s hand. He led Leo into the bathroom, grabbing his butt as he walked through the door. They took turns taking quick showers and brushing their teeth. They pulled on some lounge clothes and made their way downstairs and to the living room to find Giovana sleeping on their couch in a dress she had worn the night before. She was sound asleep even with Lucas licking something off her hand. Gabriel went and got some sheets from the linen closet and put them on top of her before he and Leo slinked to the kitchen together to officially start the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of modest when it comes to writing down sexual words, so no dirty words were used in any of this. I kept blushing when I went to type them. There will be more posted soon. Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Giovana shows up to the boys' house and a few problems ensue.

Gabriel set the tea kettle on the stove and went to the cupboard to search for some tea bags. Leo sat at the table across the room from the stove playing with the flap of an envelope that had been brought in the day before and forgotten about on the table. Gabriel poured boiling water into two cups and sat them down on the table along with two tea bags. He placed them in the mugs to let them seep for a few minutes.

“Giovana is back again. This is the fourth time in like five weeks.” Gabriel said under his breath hoping that Leo wouldn’t hear so that he could avoid a mini-argument while still   
venting his frustrations.

“She’s just going through a rough patch. Don’t worry; this will probably be the last time.” Leo chided in using the same tone as Gabriel.

Giovana had been doing this same thing, every Sunday morning, for a little more than a month. Giovana had always had a penchant for alcohol, but lately it had become more and more of a crutch for her. Giovana lived in a high-rise about three miles away from the boys’ house, but lately she would go out Saturday night, get herself drunk, and take a taxi to Leo and Gabriel’s house instead of going home.

Giovana would drink during the week too, but somehow manage to function at work, an action Gabriel attributed to a high tolerance to drinking. Despite being a high functioning alcoholic during the week, she would go above and beyond to let loose on Saturday’s and would always avoid going home and would arrive at the boys’ house early in the morning. 

She had done this on and off for periods of time in the past, but recently she was doing it more and more until it had gotten to the point where it was happening more often than not.

“We can’t have her showing up like this when Marina comes home.” Gabriel said not looking up from the mug. “I don’t want her seeing that every week.”

“She won’t.” Leo said still playing with the envelope. “She just needs a little time. She will get through it. She was there for me that year in high school when we broke up, and I have to be there for her now.”

Leo hated referencing that year, but he figured it was a needed sacrifice in order to win the argument, since he knew that Gabriel hated hearing about it as well. It probably wasn’t good to dredge up the past, but Leo knew he had to do it to avoid a bigger problem later on.

Gabriel cringed a little inside when he finally registered what Leo had just said. He brought the mug of tea up to his mouth and covered up his initial frown. He didn’t want to go down this road of discussion any further so they sat in silence while they drank their tea and ate breakfast.

Giovana got up a few minutes before noon. The boys had put Lucas in the backyard, Leo had begun reading a braille copy of 100 Years of Solitude at the kitchen table, while Gabriel was preparing a lunch for all of them to eat. Giovana walked into the kitchen and casually sat down. Leo noticed the sound of the chair shifting as she sat.

“How did you sleep? Are you feeling okay?” He asked his friend while his hand stopped going across the pages of his book.

“I’m fine.” She said quietly and then she looked down. “I heard you two when I came in the house though.”

Leo’s cheeks flushed while Gabriel smirked from across the room, not even turning his head from the food he was preparing.

The room got silence again except for Lucas’ occasional barking from the backyard. Giovana sensed that her last comment had made the room a little uncomfortable.

“So….how did lunch go yesterday?” Giovana asked to change the topic.

Gabriel chimed in without looking away from the food he was preparing. “It went well. And now everyone knows, so the next step will be bringing her home.”

“That’s exciting.” Giovana said as she grabbed Leo’s hand out of his book and squeezed it. “I can’t believe you two are going to have a daughter. It seems like just yesterday we were in college.”

“I remember college very well. Do you remember the incident with Leo and the brownies?” Gabriel asked as he placed down three plates of food on the table and sat down in his chair.

Leo blushed at the thought of the episode coming back up into his husband’s and his best friend’s minds. No one had mentioned the incident in years and even had begun to forget about it, before it had resurfaced during this conversation.

“Oh my god. We made those brownies for a party we were throwing in my dorm before a music festival. I remember that Swedish singer that you were into was going to be there.   
What was her name again?” Giovana asked.

Gabriel answered in between bites of food, “Lykke Li, she was in that short film remember?”

“Right.” Giovana remembered. “We had baked the brownies and left them on the counter.” She had started to crack up with laughter. “When we got back, Leo had eaten three and was working on a fourth.”

Gabriel chimed in, “He was sitting on a stool in the kitchen quietly and rubbing his hand through his hair. I didn’t even realized what was going on until I noticed half a brownie in his hand. He told me that he could feel his ends splitting.”

Giovana had gone red in the face from laughter after reliving her best friends first and only experience with any drug. Gabriel and Giovana smoked a small amount during college,   
but it was a completely new experience for Leo at the time. Gabriel had joined Giovana in laughter.

"You're both silly. It was both your faults. I smelled brownies and I thought Giovana's mom made them." Leo said quietly, trying not to give Giovana and Gabriel any further ammunition.

"You know Leoncinho," Gabriel said in a sarcastic tone, "you aren't going to be able to continue your casual drug use when Marina comes home."

"Let me finish the heroin in the pantry then." Leo chimed back at his husband, beginning to laugh at his own behavior when he was under the influence.

"I can't wait for my niece to come home. We are gonna have so much fun together." Giovana said still catching her breath from laughing.

Leo could't see it, but after so many years of being with his husband, he could practically feel his husband tense up in his seat. He knew that Gabriel didn't like the idea of Giovana influencing Marina with her actions of drinking like a fish and waking up on the boys' couch every Saturday like their living room was a youth hostel.

"We can't wait for her to finally meet her Aunt Giovana, but we need to make sure that she isn't around you when you're like that...like you were last night." Gabriel added with a monotonous voice.

"What he means." Leo paused trying to think of a way to avoid the argument that had been occurring every Sunday afternoon for the past few weeks. "We just want to see you to enjoy your niece to the fullest."

"Oh, I know what he means." Giovana said standing up from the table. "He thinks I'm going to be bad for your kid." 

Giovana marched out of the kitchen, through the living room, and through the front door. The boys listened for the courtyard gate to slam, but it didn't. Giovana was sitting on the porch, probably smoking a cigarette or messing around with the flowers that Laura had planted when the boys moved in.

"You didn't need to do that Gabriel." Leo said grabbing his husbands forearm to stop him from storming upstairs. "She knows that she has a problem, she just needs a little help from us. And I'm sure that she will get her act together soon, we just need to support her."

"Leonardo, I don't want Giovana behaving that way in front of my daughter." Gabriel said as he got up to go upstairs.

"Your daughter? I could've sworn I was her father too." Leo yelled as he heard Gabriel ascend the stairs to their bedroom.

"For fucks sake Leo, you know what I meant. Don't get your ass mixed up with your ashes." Gabriel called back down to his husband.

Leo sat at the table and made his way from the kitchen to the living room, carrying his book to the couch. He ran his hands over the pages of the book, but he couldn't concentrate with two most important people to him fighting yet again in opposite corners of his house. He sighed a regretful breath and leaned back on the couch that was still covered with the quilt that Giovana had gotten from the linen closet the night before.

Leo knew that the two would make up, if not by 6 that evening, then definitely by 8 the next morning, because those two had loved each other like siblings and they couldn't stand hurting the other for more than a few hours. It had happened every week like this for the past 3 weeks, and it had begun to start weighing a little on Leo.

"Damn it." Leo said, uttering out the only words that he could think of to sum up the issues at hand. "Damn it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. School has been killing me slowly. There are still a lot more chapters to come, but I think for now I'm going to start skipping around in time after they get Marina, so we can see them as parents.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Resolution from last chapters argument.

Leo got off the couch to let Lucas into the house about a half hour after everyone flipped their shit at the table. Leo couldn't believe these two were acting like babies by trying to avoid each other. "Fucking morons," he thought as he reached in the dark for the latch to open up the door to the courtyard. He sat back down on the couch and felt Lucas snuggle up on the floor next to his feet. Leo had to deal with this almost every weekend for a while now, the only other time that he could remember that even came close to the tension and uneasiness he felt was the year that he and Gabriel broke up in high school.

Leo didn't like thinking about that time when he and Gabriel weren't together. It was hard thinking about how he almost loss his future husband because of his own actions and vulnerabilities.

* * *

 

_Leo was just 17 when it had happened, it was the fall semester of his final year of high school. He, Gabriel, and Giovana had already begun studying for the entrance exam to the University of São Paulo before he left for his exchange program. He was headed to Miami before he realized how long his trip would mean that we would be away from his friends and family and Gabriel, so when he got off the plane, he was already felling homesick in the pit of his stomach._

_He was alone, he had taken English classes in school and he understood his host family, but it was weird not being at home, having to speak a different language all the time, and then not being able to see his new surroundings. It was difficult for Leo, he was vulnerable. Giovana wasn't there to walk him home, his grandmother wasn't there to keep him company, and Gabriel wasn't there to let him lay in his lap. So when he did what he did, it didn't seem wrong at the time, it seemed like a way of trying to capture some piece of home._

_So when he met Jonathan, his host family's cousin who was the first out gay guy that Leo had gotten acquainted with, it made him temporarily feel like he belonged a bit more in a land in a school that he didn't know anything about.It started out innocent, just a close friendship between two boys, but then they started cuddling more when they were alone. Leo used to imagine that Gabriel was on the other side of the darkness in that Florida basement, that it was Gabriel's chest he was falling asleep on every other night._

_Then it escalated. Jonathan would start getting handsy with Leo, rubbing him and touching him in their free time. Leo didn't think much of it until Jonathan, kissed him on his neck. Leo realized exactly what he had been doing all those months then. He realized he had been cheating on Gabriel, sometimes even laying in Jonathan's lap as he made his daily phone call to Gabriel. However, even though he knew it was wrong, he didn't stop Jonathan that night, he still doesn't know why he didn't stop him, but he didn't._

_So when Jonathan slid his cold hands down Leo's shirt and slid his mouth down Leo's chest, Leo didn't stop him. Soon Leo's pants were off in that damp Florida basement and Jonathan was looming over him. Leo lost his virginity, which he had promised Gabriel in the distant future after they got into college, bent over a card table to a guy he had known less than 3 months._

_The second Leo got back home after his semester abroad and looked Gabriel in the eyes, he felt shame for giving away something he had promised to Gabriel and not telling him about it. It was two weeks after he got back that he worked up the nerves to tell the truth about what happened. When he did, Gabriel didn't flip out like he hoped, he just asked Leo to leave. They didn't speak to each other for months until they met up again for freshman orientation at their university, and they didn't get back together until the following winter. They completely divided up their lives, Leo went with Giovana and William (the guy Giovana was dating at the time), and Gabriel went with Karina._

* * *

 

Leo's mind drifted back to this incident, because in short the entire ordeal was stupid. It was caused by stupid actions, they all behaved stupidly about it, and it almost cost both of them the happiness that they had in their life, even though everyone in the house was fuming at each other today. But they all managed to get through all of that shit because they actually communicated with each other, so Leo realized that if he was going to put any type of lasting band aid on the situation, he was gonna have to get them to sit down and talk it out.

"Come to the living room silly", Leo said into his phone as he sent Giovana and Gabriel voice messages. Giovana beat Gabriel to the living room, Leo couldn't see that she had tear lines coming down her cheeks. Gabriel showed up and saw her red eyes and looked down at Leo who was still sitting down on the couch.

"You both have to stop arguing and talk about this shit." Leo said. "You're acting like morons."

Giovana and Gabriel stood there silently for a while until Giovana burst out into small vocal sobs, "You don't think I'm good enough to be around your daughter. You're both ashamed that I'm your friend."

"Damn it Giovana. We aren't ashamed of you." Gabriel said in between sighs. "We just wish you would take better care of yourself, you drink like a fucking fish and when you aren't doing that you smoke like a chimney. We are worried for you and that you will rub off on our daughter."

"Yeah, we worry about you a lot. We just worry a lot for your safety sometimes, we will never be ashamed of you." Leo added.

"I'm sorry." Giovana said in between sobs. "I promise I will try to stop before she gets here. Its just hard. I just need a little help."

"We're both here to give you help when you need it, you just have to ask." Gabriel responded looking her in the face.

Gabriel reached over and hugged Giovana and whispered "I'm sorry" in her ear. This wasn't anywhere near the end of Giovana's addiction, but it was a turning point, because she realized that her alcoholism was stressing out those around her and she started to seek help and cut back. She still ended up on the boys couch from time to time, but less and less frequently. After all, she had helped the boys in through their own problems, now she just needed a little help from them to make it to a better place in her life and her relationship with herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this just to bridge the gap between chapter 6 and 8 and give some sort of resolution to the situation. I actually wrote 8 before 7, so if you see any problems tell me so I can fix them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel and Leo go pick up Marina to take her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place two weeks after the last chapter.

Gabriel and Leo closed the gate as they made their way to their SUV which was parked on the curb. Gabriel got in the driver seat and unlocked the door for his husband. Leo was carrying a little brown bag with a little blue dress Laura had bought at a department store the week before. It had been two weeks since they had told Laura at lunch that they were expecting to add a daughter to their family and Laura was excited. Leo placed the bag between his legs and buckled into his seat.

Gabriel pulled off and got into the avenue that lead to the little Catholic group home in Paraisopolis where Marina was staying at on behalf of the state of São Paulo. The boys had visited her before, especially on weekends when Gabriel was free from work. They had taken her around the city on Saturday, especially to the park near their house. It was during their visits to the park that they realized that 3 year old Marina like to lead Leo by wrapping her hand around his index finger.

Today was the day they were taking Marina home. It had been months in the making, but by the end of the day, Leo and Gabriel would be full fledged parents. There was no turning back for either of them at this point, the only step left in the process was to pick up Marina, get her dressed, and hear the court's ruling on Marina's adoption.

"Do you remember when used you let me ride your bike?" Leo asked fiddling with the handles of the paper bag.

"If you're about to ask to drive the car, don't waste your breath Leoncinho." Gabriel added as he grabbed his husbands thigh.

The boys made their way to the little house on the border of Paraisopolis with the sign saying "Our Daughters of Benevolence" written in faded red letters. Marina had been staying here for almost two years prior, after she had been unclaimed after a residential fire in a Northern favela. They pulled in a parking space reserved for visitors for the group home. Gabriel saw how nervous his husband was and grabbed his hand and squeezed it before he unlocked the doors and got out the car.

They walked to the door together, it was relatively hot for it to still be morning, but a breeze was whipping down the narrow street. Leo was happy that the outfit Laura bought included a light jacket to go over the dress. They knocked on the door and were greeted by the group mother, Ms. Silveira, who held a small child on her hip as she swung open the door.

"She's been up all night waiting on you two boys." She said while adjusting the infant on her hip. "She won't say it, but I know she's a little anxious."

"Thanks for the heads up Ms. Silveira." Gabriel said reaching out for the child she was balancing. It wasn't Marina, but the kids at the home had gotten somewhat accustomed to seeing the boys around the house on Saturdays over the past few months.

"Leo, do you mind giving me the bag so I can go get her dressed and get her hair ready for court today?" Ms. Silveira asked.

"No ma'am." Leo said as he handed over the brown bag to the older woman.

The boys sat down on a worn couch and waited on Marina. They played with the other children who were there at the home to pass the time. Leo's blindness was a source of curiosity to some of the younger kids who would wave hands in front of his face as some sort of makeshift child's game.

Marina brushed past the door frame as she entered the room. She had skin the color of dull copper, not unlike Professora Ana from high school, and thick curly hair that was pinned down for the court healing. She was shielding her eyes, which were almond in shape and dark brown in color, from the light after entering from a significantly darker room. She walked over to the couch and stood in front of the boys.

Leo had heard the clicking noise that the shoes Laura had bought made on the worn tile floor. He reached out and felt for Marina's hand in the darkness and felt the little hand and pulled Marina closer into a hug.

"How are you today Marina?"

"Good." She replied back timidly.

"Are you ready to go to our home?" Gabriel asked, fiddling with a pin in her hair.

Marina looked slowly at Ms. Silveira and said "Yes" and broke out into a low giggle.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go to court." Leo said picking up Marina as he got off the couch.

"We will be back tomorrow for any more of her stuff. Thank you so much Ms. Silveira for all that you've done for her." Leo added as he placed Marina on the floor and presented his two fingers for her to lead him to the car.

They exited the little wooden building and go into the SUV. Marina climbed in the car seat and waited for Gabriel to buckle her into the seat before they drove off.  
Gabriel reached into back of the seat and buckled up the little girl, and they drove off to officially become the family that they already were.

They arrived to the courthouse and valet parked the car. Marina lead Leo up the steps by his fingers as Gabriel walked behind them. They made their way into the courthouse a full hour before their hearing was scheduled. They sat alone in the seating provided in the back of the courtroom where they were going to have their future decided well within the next hour. Marina had gotten exhausted from her own anxiety about what was going on and she had fallen asleep wedged between her two dads. Leo was starting to nod off too, when the judge called upon them all to present their case for adoption.

Then there was a lot of legal talk about the exact details of the adoption, including a clause in Brazilian law that made the judgement final and irreversible. This went on for well over 20 minutes until the judge moved into the final formalities of the adoption. Marina was starting to get fidgety by the time the judge declared the adoption legally binding and official.

They were finally an official family in the eyes of the State of São Paulo and the nation of Brazil. They could take Marina home to live with them forever now, because from that moment forward, their home would be her home too and that was what they wanted most of all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed. I will be posting more of this story as I can, but I'm a little busy with school. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to reach out or leave them on the work. Thanks <3<3<3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and Carlos throw a party for the new family.

They pulled up at Laura and Carlos' house around three o'clock for the party Laura insisted that they have to commemorate the day. To be honest, the excitement had started to get to Marina and she had begun dosing off in her seat when she arrived at her Grandmother's house for the first time. It had gotten warmer later in the day and the entire family was sweating in the heat underneath the clothes that they wore for the hearing.

They had just come from court and hadn't had time to eat yet, let alone change. Gabriel pulled the car up to the curb outside of the house. Leo was the first one out of the car, stepping out on the familiar sidewalk outside of his childhood house. He felt his hand for the back door handle and opened the door to get Marina out of her seat on the passenger's side. Gabriel was watching them in the vanity mirror, Marina's eyes were starting to droop down a little and she had light sweat coming down from her hair.

Leo pulled Marina onto his hip and pulled away from the car before closing the door. She nudged her face further into Leo's shoulder with her eyes still closed. Leo used his free hand to feel for the metal gate to the house.

Gabriel followed close behind after locking the car door. He waited for Leo to open the gate which was left unlocked for the party. Gabriel noticed the pink balloon tied to the top rung of the gates bars. It was moving gently in the wind and the heat from the sun had caused it to expand with those little rubber stretch marks balloons tend to get. It crossed his mind how Laura must have put the balloon up early that day in preparation for Marina to arrive.

Leo made his way up the steps still holding Marina on his hips. Gabriel followed behind them as they knocked on the door to the house. Laura opened the doors to the living room and allowed for the boys to enter their way into the doorway. Carlos was standing behind the open door waiting for the boys and Marina to past through the doorway so he could throw some pink confetti over their heads.

Carlos tossed the confetti in the air and was about to scream “congratulations” at the top of his lungs, but was cut short by Gabriel’s shushing before he realized that Marina was fast asleep in his son’s arms. Carlos knew that she must have been exhausted from the way she didn’t even stir as a piece of confetti settled an inch above her eye after sticking to her sweaty forehead.

Giovana and her mother, Luisa, were sitting on the living room couch trying to turn around and see the reason for Gabriel’s shushing. Karina and her husband David were sitting opposite from them on the chairs on the other side of the coffee table smiling at the boys. Gabriel was quick to wave and smile back.

Leo had sensed how deep of a sleep Marina was, so he leaned over to the side Gabriel was on and whispered, “Should I go lay her down in my room? She is in no condition to deal with all of us tonight.” Gabriel looked over to his husband as Laura quietly shut the door behind them and said “Yeah, I’ll go with you to put her down.”

Gabriel and Leo made their way down the hall while Laura followed closely. They laid her down on the bed but they didn’t cover her up due to the heat. Laura leered over the boys as they settled her on the bed, smiling over the scene. Gabriel ran a hand over the sweat on her face to wipe it off before he got up to go back to the living room. Leo heard his shifting on the floor and got up to follow suit. Laura led the way back to the gathering of friends and family waiting on them in the living room.

Now that Marina had fallen asleep during the celebration in her honor, everyone was stumped on how exactly to celebrate a child’s party without the actual child. There was cake and ice cream in the kitchen, balloons in the living room, and small present on the dining room table, but no one was sure what to do besides make small talk in the hope that Marina would wake up at some time before it got too late so that they all could get to see her before the party began to disband.

Karina started the conversation first by asking Giovana how she had been. She was holding her husband’s hand as she excitedly asked, “So how have you been girl? I haven’t seen you that much lately.” She still called Giovana “girl” in the same bubbly way that she had done in high school and college, despite both being full-fledged adults at this point in their lives.

“I’ve been fine lately. Happy to see my goddaughter at home tonight. What about you girl?” Giovana said girl with a slightly mocking tone. She still wasn’t Karina’s biggest fan and she never had been. It was beyond her comprehension as to how Gabriel not only tolerated her, but dared call her one of his closest friends. Giovana hated Karina’s constant self-absorbed talking. She was secretly happy at pointing out to Karina that while both women would be considered the girl’s aunts, she was the one and only chosen as Marina’s godmother.

All of this flew right over Karina’s head because she was too happy in herself and in the night’s occasion to ever consider Giovana offering her anything less than friendly conversation and a sense of sisterhood that she had become falsely used to and dependent on. She went right on explaining the highs in her life, her job at a bank, David’s recent promotion at his father’s company, her anticipation of an upcoming trip that they would be taking to Europe. She dominated the conversation in the room with her elaborations on the positive things happening in her life for almost twenty-five minutes before the conversation waned off.

Then Laura started fussing about the heat of the evening and the recent goings on of the city, like the new developments that dotted the avenue and the small recession that had resulted in a slow in employment and a drop in real estate prices around the country. It was nothing interesting, the only people engaged were Carlos, David, and Mrs. Luisa.

About an hour and a half after their arrival, they heard whimpering come from Leo’s old room. They had forgotten that Marina might be confused about waking up in a room she had never been in. She was crying out “pais” in between breaths and whimpers. Both the boys got out of their seats and made their way down the hall. Marina was thoroughly scared and shaken, it wasn’t until Gabriel picked her up and squeezed her in his arms that she stopped her creaming, but tears were still coming down her face.

They brought her up to the living room. Gabriel was still rocking her in his hands until they got to the living room and he stood her in front of his seat. “Don’t cry abelhinha, I’ve got you,” he said as he used his hands to wipe away her confused tears. Laura chimed in smiling at the child, “You don’t have to cry, you’re with at grandmother’s house now. You can’t cry at your own party pretty girl.” The child looked over at Laura, who she had never seen in person before. She was too scared and shy to talk, so she just stared at her with her big brown eyes. She shifted her eyes to take in the rest of the room taking in all the people around her as she began to calm herself down.

“You want some ice cream and cake Marina?” Leo said trying to cheer up his daughter. Her eyes got even bigger with the promise of sweets in the kitchen. She cupped her hands up to Leo’s ear and whispered to ask what flavor both the cake and the ice cream was. He responded out loud in an attempt to show her that she could feel comfortable with everyone else in the room, “The cake is vanilla and I remembered you said you liked chocolate ice cream, so I made sure that we got you some of it in the freezer.”

She whispered in his ears again for him to take her to the sweets. He responded out loud again that they could all go in the kitchen and cut the cake so that someone could record it for the boys. He got up and let her hold his hand as he walked her into the kitchen. Carlos and Laura set the cake and ice cream out and Gabriel grabbed a small, dull knife from the drawer. David recorded on Gabriel’s phone as everyone crowded around as Leo guided Marina’s hand as she cut into the cake. Everyone clapped when she had separated her piece, she had taken the rose from the corner of the cake and Gabriel was now placing it on a separate plate that had the face of some cartoon character on it.

They sat her at the head of the dining table and allowed her to eat the cake. At first Gabriel was going to protest the fact that Marina had only taken two bites with the fork she had been given, and had used her hands to eat the rest, but he let it slide when he saw her smile in between bites. She had pink frosting all over her mouth.

Soon everyone else was spread out around the dining room eating cake and ice cream and Marina seemed to relax more. When they were done, the party moved on to the small amount of gifts in the middle of the table. Karina and David got her a little gold charm bracelet, Giovana and Luisa got her a cute little personalized book where the character not only looked like Marina, but was also named Marina, and Carlos and Laura got her a stuffed little lamb with a little metal bell on its neck.

After that, the party made its way back to the living room, where each member of the party had some time to play and socialize with Marina. She was starting to warm up to everyone, but her favorite person was Laura because she didn’t fuss over her in such a socially aggressive way, she just let Marina sit in her lap and ran her hands across Marina’s cheeks.

At some point in the evening, someone broke out some drinks and everyone was getting a little drunk except for Gabriel and Luisa. Gabriel still had to drive home and Luisa wasn’t the drinking type, but that didn’t slow down anyone else. By the time Karina and David got in a cab to go home, Marina had fallen back asleep, except this time she had fallen asleep on Gabriel’s chest and he had dozed off too after a while. The excitement of the day had left both of them spent. Leo wasn’t drunk, but he definitely wasn’t sober as he talked with Giovana with his head on her unsteady shoulder.

Giovana and Leo talked for another hour before Luisa got up and called for Giovana to walk with her back home. Giovana kissed Leo on the cheek before walking out the door. “Tell those two I said goodbye.” She said while motioning towards Marina and Gabriel, “She really is so pretty”. Leo smiled as Laura escorted them to the door and waved them off.

It had gotten dark outside while they were there and it was about time to go home for the boys and Marina. Carlos walked over and nudged Gabriel awake. Gabriel opened his eyes and saw the Marina was still asleep on his chest. He looked at his phone and saw the time. He saw Leo sitting on the couch talking to Laura with a slurred tone. “You ready to go?” Leo asked. Gabriel nodded his head and shook Marina’s back to wake her up.

“Say goodbye sweetheart, we’re about to go home,” Gabriel said as he stood up with her in his arms. Marina waved at Laura and Carlos and then dug her face in Gabriel’s shoulder. He could tell she was exhausted, after all it was a busy day for a three-year old. He handed Marina over to Leo as he collected all of Marina’s new gifts in his hands as he made his way towards the car. After he got everything and everyone in the car, they headed back home.

When they got back home, they didn’t even bother getting Marina dressed for bed, they just laid her down in her bed and turned off the light. Then they went upstairs and got ready for bed themselves. Before they turned off the lights, Leo turned to his husband’s side of the bed and asked for him to describe Marina again for him. They both smiled, Gabriel was proud of the adoration his husband had for their daughter and the descriptions made Leo feel like he was getting to know Marina even more.

Gabriel started off his description still smiling and staring at his husband, “Well, she has the biggest brown eyes I have ever seen and pretty curly hair and nice brown skin and her face is so pretty. She has a nose like yours, and pouty lips that make her look like she is always about to say something important.” As Gabriel said the last bit, he ran a finger across Leo’s lips and giggled a little bit.

Leo smiled, “She sounds so pretty. I can’t believe she’s ours now.” Gabriel just rubbed his husbands shoulder and turned off the lamp, and they fell asleep like they had done for so many years now, in the same bed, only except that on that night, Marina had made her way up the stairs in the dark and had fallen asleep at the foot of the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I posted this a long time ago, it was written but I hadn't posted it. There will be more posted now that I have a looser schedule at school. If you have any suggestions or requests to where you would like to see the story go, feel free to contact me.


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